Richard Branson

Chairman, president & chief executive officer, Virgin Group Ltd.

Mr Branson was born in 1950 and educated at Stowe School. There, he set up Student magazine when he was 16.

In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and shortly afterward he opened a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1972 the shop built a recording studio in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded ‘Tubular Bells.’

In 1977 company signed the Sex Pistols and went on to sign many household names from Culture Club to the Rolling Stones, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world.

With around 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund we are investing in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

In February 2007, the company announced the Virgin Earth Challenge - a $25 million prize to encourage a viable technology which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases. In July of the same year Mr. Branson joined Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to announce the formation of The Elders, a group of leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.

Mr. Branson also is involved with Virgin Unite, the company's not-for-profit entrepreneurial foundation, which focuses on entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues.

OneWeb, a satellite-internet startup whose backers include Airbus and entrepreneur Richard Branson, is in talks with Japan’s SoftBank Group about a potential strategic linkup, according to people familiar with the matter.

Richard Branson’s space-tourism company said it has received federal approval to resume testing its rocket plane following a 2014 fatal test flight and to eventually start carrying passengers to the edge of space.

FAA officials repeatedly failed to act on safety warnings about an experimental rocket ship backed by billionaire British entrepreneur Richard Branson that crashed in 2014, according to a former agency consultant.

Virgin Atlantic Airways chalked up a second year of operating profit last year after a succession of annual losses, aided by a lower fuel bill and a restructuring in which the carrier founded by billionaire Richard Branson has focused on flights to the U.S.

Corporations and business figures have intensified their efforts to keep the U.K. in the European Union, issuing several statements that built on months of support for a “remain” vote in the referendum.

The skin of SpaceShipOne was smoothed with auto-body putty. The pilot snacked on M&Ms. Gregg Easterbrook reviews “How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight” by Julian Guthrie.